So, I’m interested in the new iMac. Never had an iMac before, but I’m digging both the aesthetics and overall simplicity of setup. This iMac (if purchased) would be not only for me (and Unreal Engine dev) BUT for my family.
My questions I have for you all:
What are other users experiences using Macs for Unreal Engine development? Tell me your pros and cons.
I’m used to a PC mouse with a left mouse button, right mouse button, and scroll wheel (middle mouse button!) How does the mouse used with an iMac affect you?
Specs. I don’t need the HIGHEST end specs…just something that can run Unreal Engine (especially Unreal Engine 5) without any issues. What do you all make of the specs in the latest iMacs hitting the market soon here?
don’t recommend using mac for unreal development. never had an iMac, but tried using MacBook Pro few years back for game development, and with all engines created catering for windows development, I ended up with dual OS which kind of looses the purpose of having a mac.
however, for general use, I would actually recommend mac as I like their simple interfaces but that’s just me…
I’d be curious to know what you all have and / or recommend for Unreal Engine specs going forward. I know Epic has a page for “recommended specs”…but I’m looking for actual info from you all regarding things like what graphics card you may recommend? How much RAM? How much storage?
You just can’t have enough power/space for development, especially if you want to follow along with the sample projects that Epic make available in the marketplace.
I use Windows 10 Pro (mainly because it comes with Hyper-V – regular works fine too.)
Threadripper CPU (the more threads the better for builds – but see below.) Mine’s a four years old Ryzen 1950X, which is starting to bump into limitations.
NVIDIA GPU (the higher the better – I use a 3090 GTX) If you’re a content creator, MAYBE the Quadros will be worth the upgrade, but for indies/programmers/gameplayers, they’re not.
As much RAM as possible – 128 GB would be the minimum for building the current Unreal sample projects; 64 GB is not enough. If you’re buying today, get 256 GB so you don’t run into a wall a year or two from now.
2 TB NVME main drive (I use 970 Evo Plus – luckily, these are affordable and easy to upgrade after the fact.)
4 TB SSD secondary drive (I use a 860 Evo SSD – again, these are affordable enough and you can upgrade them as you go along.)
Note that this is for development. For playing, you’ll actually make slightly different trade-offs – e g, faster single core performance is more important than raw core count, as long as you have at least 8 cores, if you want the highest FPS for gaming. A Ryzen 9 5950X CPU would be about ideal for gaming; a Threadripper 3970W CPU is a better choice for development. (The 3990 suffers too much in single core speed to make up for it with the even-more cores, it seems.)
For development, you want the fastest, biggest (in that order) NVME drive you can get your hands on, followed by the most CPU cores you can afford, followed by enough RAM to actually fit the projects you work on. The GPU isn’t super important, except you want lots of RAM on the GPU to fit the projects you work with.
For gameplay, the GPU speed is the most important factor, followed by a CPU single-core speed to be able to push that GPU to its max (my 1950X CPU is not capable of maxing out the RTX 3090 GPU in most cases.)
And then get yourself a nice monitor, because you’re going to be staring at that for 10 hours a day 7 days a week… And a nice keyboard/mouse for the same reasons. I use a Kinesis Freestyle RGB / Brown, and Razor Lancehead, beacuse that works for me, but those are super personal choices.
If you’re interested in UE4/5 development, the simple answer is do not use a mac.
Get a PC.
Required specs wise will vary depending on what you will be doing.
Lets take a look at my current setup:
CPU: i7-4770k
RAM: 16GB
GPU: Vega64
Storage: Samsung 850 PRO 512GB + 2 x Samsung 860 EVO 1TB
Much of the system was bought towards the end of 2013, with the GPU being changed and extra storage been added as time went on.
I mainly work with C++ and Blueprints, on everything from AI to UI work.
For the most part, the system has been great, but is definitely showing its age in some areas.
e.g. Core count, no DX12 support,
I was planning to create a new system, but kept putting it off.
Now I’ve postponed the idea entirely, due to current shortage and expense of various parts.
Mind you, due to he C++ related work, I am looking at a rather high end system, with a high core count.
For basic work, you could get away with less:
CPU: 4-8 cores
RAM: 16GB
Graphics: decent non-integrated GPU
Storage: decent 1-2TB SSD
My biggest recommendation for hardware is getting a decent SSD and install the engine on it. Its changed my life working with UE, projects open in seconds rather than minutes now. Compiling in visual studio is vastly quicker aswell. Best thing I ever brought.
Heres my specs for reference, the editor runs pretty sweet on it:
Cpu: I7-8700k
Gpu: rtx 2080 super
Ram: 16gb
HD: samsung 980 pro SSD nvme
I’m also interested to hear any suggestions about best “bang for the buck” hardware configurations.
Obviously one could spend a TON of money getting the absolute top specs. I just want great VALUE. Some really good hardware specs that won’t break the bank.
I’d like to keep it all under $2,000…but would possibly go up to $3,000 for a setup that’s compelling enough.